Budget 2020: Govt Pegs Lower RBI Dividend At Rs 60,000 Cr For FY 21

The expectation of higher income from the sale of CPSEs (Rs 2.1 lakh crore) may have nudged the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to cut down reliance on dividend income for next fiscal.

Reserve Bank of India Photo/PTI

The government has budgeted for lower dividend from the central bank and state-run lenders in the coming fiscal year, relying exclusively on an ambitious disinvestment target for resource mobilisation. Accordingly, its has provisioned Rs 89,600 crore ($12.6 billion) in dividends from the Reserve Bank of India, state-run banks and financial institutions, out of which the dividend from RBI is pegged at Rs 60,000 crore. That's (the dividends from RBI and PSU banks and financial institutions) much lower than the Rs 1.52 lakh crore the government estimates for the current year.The RBI pays dividend to the government annually, and allocated Rs 1.23 lakh crore last year. The expectation of higher income from the sale of CPSEs (Rs 2.1 lakh crore) may have nudged the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to cut down reliance on dividend income for next fiscal. The government estimates that the RBI will pay about Rs 60,000 crore as dividend in the next fiscal year, Economic Affairs Secretary Atanu Chakraborty said at the Post Budget press conference but he did not say anything on any interim dividend. For the last two years, the RBI has been paying interim dividends. The government is expecting to raise Rs 2.1 trillion from divestment of state assets in the next fiscal. The Finance Ministry is targeting a budget deficit of 3.5 per cent of gross domestic product in the coming year, down from 3.8 per cent this fiscal year. In the past, the government has taken the route of seeking interim dividend from the RBI to balance its account. Last fiscal, the RBI paid Rs 28,000 crore as interim dividend. During 2017-18, the government received Rs 10,000 crore as interim dividend from the central bank. Last year in August, Governor Shaktikanta Das-led RBI central board gave its nod for transferring to the government a sum of Rs 1,76,051 crore, comprising Rs 1,23,414 crore of surplus for the year 2018-19 and Rs 52,637 crore of excess provisions identified as per the revised Economic Capital Framework (ECF).Out of the net income of Rs 1,23,414 crore for the year 2018-19, the RBI had already transferred Rs 28,000 crore to the government as interim dividend in March 2019.